Kale Lemonade

I wasn’t certain what to call this, but this is what it tasted like to me. As I told you earlier today I am trying to reduce the produce we have on hand. The kale was taking up a lot of room in the refrigerator which made it my first target.

Since juicing is an easy way to consume a lot of produce I decided to juice the kale not having any idea what I was going to add to it. I tasted it straight and it was bitter. I decided to juice a lemon to see what that would do to the flavor. Additionally lemon is good to add since plant iron is better absorbed with vitamin C. Definitely better but we aren’t there yet. It still needed some sweetness so I juiced 4 carrots. The taste is better, but is not quite right just yet. I stirred in stevia until it tasted sweet and that was it, kale lemonade.

I had no intention of posting this when I started making it but it turned out better than I expected so I wanted to share the idea. I will give you the amounts I used so you can see the nutrition, which is just amazing. Here is what I did:

Kale Lemonade
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale (about 8 cups), cut into stalks so you can feed it into your juicer
1 lemon, cut into chunks
4 carrots
3 scoops stevia, or to taste

Directions:

Run everything but the stevia through the juicer. Stir the juice well and add stevia to taste. Best served cold.

Nutritional information: **

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 209.12
Calories From Fat (9%) - 18.55

Total Fat - 2.27g
Saturated Fat - 0.3g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 227.32mg
Potassium - 1757.02mg
Total Carbohydrates - 46.85g
Fiber - 10.33g
Sugar - 8.5g
Protein - 10.51g

** The nutrition numbers are overstated by the fiber that was removed through juicing. I have no idea how that impacted the other numbers. The program I used doesn’t have the fresh juices in the database.

Comments:

The green color is a little unsettling but it tastes much better than it looks. This juice really needed the stevia. I thought I could make it sweet enough with only carrots, not even close. I will definitely make this again. I even think Dan will like it, which was not what I expected when I started preparing this. The lemon flavor is on the light side. Next time I may use two lemons and possibly add a little sparkling water (like Pellegrino).

Each serving of this juice contains 68,200IU of vitamin A, 350mg of vitamin C, 420mg of calcium, 5mg of iron, 110mcg of folate, 2,200mg of vitamin K, 210mg of phosphorus, and 110mg of magnesium. I drank both servings of juice today for lunch, the cup pictured above. I should be glowing with good health any moment now. Given my breakfast and lunch I won’t feel too bad having a slice of lasagna for dinner tonight. ;-)

It is time for me to get back to cleaning and make a run to the grocery store. Talk to you again later.